


Peaceful Difference

by infinitegraces



Series: It Happened Anyway [2]
Category: Hunger Games Series - All Media Types, Hunger Games Trilogy - Suzanne Collins
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Tumblr: promptsinpanem
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-06
Updated: 2015-04-06
Packaged: 2018-03-21 12:08:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,028
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3691749
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/infinitegraces/pseuds/infinitegraces
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He knew her well enough by now to know that if he'd really messed up, she would have either yelled at him or ran away, and neither of those things was happening. (Written for Prompts in Panem, Round 7, Day 6)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Peaceful Difference

**Author's Note:**

> I experienced a bit of a block this afternoon before I went to work and then used a post-it note to work through that block with a few lines while I was at work.
> 
> (Post-it notes, ftw. I'm not even joking.)

_(Peeta Mellark - Age 13)_

Regrets. Even at his young age, Peeta knew what it was to regret something, to be burdened by the what-ifs, the way you’d never know if one action would have changed the outcome at all or if it would have made it better or worse.

He regretted not being able to deliver that first loaf of bread to her in person, the night the mines collapsed in on her father. He regretted even more not taking the two burnt loaves of bread directly to her in the rain.

He regretted that he hadn’t spoken to her the next day, instead having chosen to do nothing but stare at her, only looking away when she looked back. And then it had been several weeks of exchanged glances and averting eyes when they’d catch the other looking before the morning she showed up at the bakery with squirrels. He actually wished that he’d been the one to greet her at the door first. It was only because his brother had been closer to the door that he’d missed that opportunity.

He also regrets things that didn’t happen from before circumstances prompted him to act at all. That first day of school, he regrets not trying to tell her how much he enjoyed her singing, regrets not making an attempt to befriend her even then.

One thing he didn’t regret, however, was asking the girl he had always liked if she’d let him get to know with her and hang out with her. He couldn’t believe it had been a whole year since that day, and he smiled thinking of how his dad had helped him out. Of course, his dad had known about how Peeta felt about Katniss for years. “Like father, like son,” Mr. Mellark had said, chuckling.

He knew his dad had many regrets, as well. And Peeta was determined that his fate not be exactly like that of his father. It was why he'd taken that chance when she seemed so determined to repay him for the bread.

Peeta looked at the clock; he had just enough time to stick the cinnamon rolls and two loaves of the fruit and nut bread in the oven. His dad insisted that Katniss get fresh bread when she traded her squirrels; fresh bread for fresh meat was only fair, after all.

He had just closed the oven when the soft raps at the door sounded and the door opened.

"Mr. Mellark? Peeta?"

"I'm right here, Katniss," Peeta responded. She shot a smile his way, moving to the table to lay out the squirrels she'd shot that morning. Her aim was always improving, hitting them in the eye more often than not. "Those look awesome."

"Thanks," she said, smirking at him. "Hey, you don't have to work this afternoon, do you?"

"No, I get through at around two, I think. Why?" He peered at her curiously, wondering where she was going with this.

She bit her lip for a moment before she spoke again. "I was wondering if you'd like to, I dunno, go under the fence? Maybe see the woods?" He had asked her once what it was like out there, and though she had tried, it had been difficult for her to explain what it was like on the other side of the fence that surrounded their district. He couldn't deny being curious to actually experience the feeling of freedom that she had described to him for himself.

"Are you sure?"

"Peeta, would I have asked if you wanted to if I wasn't comfortable with it myself?" Good point, he thought. She wouldn't have asked him without thinking it over first.

“Then, yes, I'd really like to go to the woods with you," he said, suddenly excited about his afternoon.

************

They had decided that he would come to her house when he was through at the bakery that afternoon, since she lived closer to where she always entered the woods. She had no intentions of doing any real hunting, unless they happened across something, but she would still have her bow just in case any wild dogs came their way.

It was really a good thing she hadn't needed to hunt anymore today, she told him.

"Why's that?" Peeta asked after she said that.

"Because all those sticks you've stepped on and snapped have surely scared off any game within a mile or two of us," she replied, laughing. He blushed, but joined in her laughter anyway. At least she wasn't upset with him for being noisy.

"Thanks for inviting me out here. I think I understand what you were trying to tell me about coming out here. It's so different and yet we're not even that far from the fence."

"I'm glad you like it."

"I'd really like to try drawing it sometime," he said, looking at the canopy of leaves above them. It was so green and peaceful; he could almost pretend that nothing else existed except for them and these woods.

"My dad once took me to a lake that's a couple of hours away. There's a stone cabin there, too. I haven't gone out that far very many times since he died, but it is even more peaceful than this. I learned to swim there. Maybe one day I can teach you, if you're interested."

He nudged her in the side playfully. "I bet you'd still be able to swim circles around me."

She bumped his shoulder with hers in return. "You give me too much credit, as usual."

"You really don't know the effect you have. And you don't give yourself nearly enough credit, as usual."

He almost regretted saying that, wondering if it might have been too much. But Katniss just shook her head, not saying anything else. He knew her well enough by now to know that if he'd really messed up, she would have either yelled at him or ran away, and neither of those things was happening.

As they headed back to the fence in their comfortable silence, he knew for sure that he would never forget the first time she took him to the woods.


End file.
